Defence does make a difference
The Canucks have shown they can score at will with little or no problem. The shot from the point or goals by defensemen however are hard to come by. The past few years show that goals from a Nucks D are like finding a needle in a haystack.
There is a long drought going on with goals from the Canucks D going back to 2014/15 with the well-renowned Yannick Weber having at least ten goals. This is a current team with Oliver Ekman-Larsson who had at least 6 seasons with the Arizona Coyotes of 14 goals or more. Tyler Myers had a season of at least 9 goals in his time with Buffalo and Winnipeg. Quinn Hughes finally broke his goose egg of goals when he finally potted one 2 games ago.
The goals aren't necessarily important but when you are paying those three specific players a total of over $20M per year (credit CapFriendly), you would expect a lot of offensive output (he defensive side hasn't been exactly lights out either).
Quinn Hughes is on a very reasonable contract given his continuing growth in the game but both Myers and OEL are Benning mistakes that are very difficult to trade or even buy out. They both hit their ceiling a long time ago and did nothing but regress. Myers is the one that could be moved by trade deadline day or next season because his contract will be almost paid out with only 1 Mil owing come 2023/24 (cap hit of $6M).
OEL is here to stay however, with little depth upcoming in the defense department and Larsson regressing, it makes you wonder if the Canucks management is looking to make major changes to add some goal-scoring ability in their plans for the team's makeover. Remember Sami Salo and Christian Ehrhoff?
| POLL | ||
Who's gonna lead the Canucks defense in goals for the years to come? | ||
| Quinn Hughes | 69 | 52.3 % |
| OEL | 5 | 3.8 % |
| Someone else | 58 | 43.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
